Image reading apparatus such as a copier, facsimile, and image scanner are typically provided with a feed mechanism that feeds sheet material such as a sheet of paper in the forward and rearward direction which may also be referred hereinafter as the Y direction. The image reading apparatus is further typically provided with a scanner comprising a contact image sensor known as CIS that extend in the left and right direction which may also be referred hereinafter as the X direction. The image reading apparatus configured as described above captures the image on the surface of the sheet material by scanning the surface while the sheet material is fed in the Y direction by the feed mechanism.
The problem encountered in such image reading apparatus is contamination of the contact glass provided at the read head, in other words, the reading portion of the scanner. Contamination of the read head degrades the quality of the captured image which may be observed as a substantially straight black line(s). In order to remove such contamination, the user was required to clean the reading head. One solution to such inconvenience is a cleaning sheet fully covered on one side with a brush-like fabric. The cleaning sheet is fed passed the scanner by the feed mechanism and brushes off the contamination on the read head on its way passed the scanner.
The above described cleaning sheet however, merely cleaned the entire read head evenly while being fed, regardless of the location and the level of contamination in the read head of the scanner, and thus, bore a risk of residual contamination due to insufficient cleaning.